Lecture 1
The Subject Matter of Grammar
Grammar - is the study of the structure of human language.
Grammar studies the formal properties of words and sentences. It cosists of morphology and syntax. Morphology describes how words are structured and formed, how their constituents (morphemes) are classified and combined. Syntax describes how words are arranged and combined into phrases and sentences, how phrases and sentences are classified and combined into larger structures.
American Descriptive Linguistics
Its main representatives are Leonard Bloomfield (the head), Charles Fries, Zelic Harris, Charles Hockett, etc. They rejected the traditional techniques of linguistic analysis. They studied the non-alphabetical incorporative languages of Indian tribes which differ considerably from Indo-European languages. These linguists offered new procedures of description (arrangement, position, co-occurrence of linguistic elements) without resorting to meaning. Hence this school is called, at times, Behaviorist Structural Grammar (L. Bloomfield). According to behaviorists, language is just a form of behavior. Linguistics should focus on linguistic performance, it should study the behavior, distribution, arrangement, co-occurrence, structural characteristics of elements disregarding their meaning.
Methods of Linguistic Analysis
Modern grammar operates with a whole inventory of methods.
Parsing (Traditional Syntactic Analysis)
Parsing means dividing a sentence into the main and secondary parts by putting questions. This long-standing procedure proves at times inadequate (powerless, ineffective). Putting questions to the sentence People hate unreasonably we receive the following analysis Who? – people (the subject),What do they do? – hate {the predicate}, How? - unreasonably (an adverbial modifier of manner). Very often, in the structures carrying ambiguous parts or elements of ambiguous reference we can put more than one question to one and the same element. In the sentence He left the car with the girl. We can put 3 questions to the element underlined ( Whom did he leave the car with? What car did he leave? How did he leave the car?
Field and Periphery
Some scholars hold that major parts of speech have a field-like structure with the nucleus and the periphery. The nucleus embraces constituents with regular features, that is, notional words with full paradigms ( the plural form, the singular form, the genitive case form, the categorical forms of tense, aspect, correlation, voice, mood, etc). The periphery comprises deviated words, having defective paradigms.
Subcategorization
The trend among linguists is towards subdivision of major parts of speech. By the method of oppositions and the componential analysis classes of words are divided into binary groups. Nouns are divided into concrete / concrete/abstract, animate / inanimate, countable / uncountable, human / nonhuman, person / nonperson, male/female,etc. Verbs indicate actions, processes, states; each of these classes can be divided into binary groups: concrete / abstract actions, processes, states). By subcategorizing words we can improve the Distributional analysis (He reminds me of his father (íàïîìèíàåò îòöà). He reminds me of his party (íàïîìèíàåò î ïàðòèè). These are homonymous structures. Semantically they are different, as father is an animate noun (Na), while party is an inanimate noun (Nā).
Onomaseological approach
Onomaseology is concerned with the problems of nomination. This approach is based on the nominative peculiarities of words. Nominatively, words are divided into the following classes. Identifying words (names) are those which refer to objects or qualities they name. Characterizing ( predicate, qualifying) words are adjectives, adverbs, verbs. They have no reference, they are dependent on identifying words. On the syntagmatic level they develop the meanings of emotiveness, expressiveness, intensiveness, evaluation. Deictic words (pronouns and adverbs) are used anaphorically, they represent something. Technical words ( functionals) are prepositions and conjunctions, they are semantically empty.
The Noun
The General Properties of a Noun
Nouns constitute the most open class. They have the meaning of thingness as they denote substances, beings, phenomena, abstract concepts. Words of other classes can be easily nominalized (substantivized), even functional words can be nominalized for the given occasion (There are too many ifs and buts in your answer). Analytical forms can also be substantivized ( There are too many might-have-beens). Nouns are declinable words: they have inflexions of number and case. They function diversely, even as attributes( He is a space pilot).
The Category of Case
Under the category of case we understand the change of form of a noun to denote its grammatical relations to other parts of communication.
The number of cases varies in different languages { two in English (common and Genitive), 7 (including the Vocative case) in Russian). It depends upon the morphological structure of the language and its development.
In Old English cases corresponded to the syntactical positions of nouns. The Nominative represented a subject or a predicative, the Accusative represented direct object, the Dative stood for a indirect object, the Genitive stood for an attribute, the Vocative denoted a direct address. In the course of time the number of cases got reduced , the inflexions died out, and the relations of nouns to other parts of communication came to be expressed by word order, prepositions and two cases – the Common and the Genitive.
The Article
Lecture 3
The Verb
The Category of Tense
Tense is a grammatical expression of objective distinctions of time into the past, present and future. The existence of this category is undebated in all Indo-European languages, but within the category there are some debated problems:1.the number of tenses; 2.the existence of the Future Tense; 3. the syntagmatic meanings of the past tenses; 4.the nature of the Future-in- the Past.
The Past Tense
It seems to be semantically simpler as it merely refers to something that happened in the past. According to Otto Jespersen’s theory of the imaginative use of tenses, the Past or the before Past conveys, under certain conditions, hypothetical actions, unreality, impossibility (I wish you did it. I wish You had done it yesterday. He looks as if he had never been here). O.Espersen did not distinguish the Subjunctive Mood (neither Subjuncive I nor Subjunctive II).
The Future-in-the-Past Tense
There’s no agreement as to the place the forms should/would + infinitive occupy in the system of the English language. Often, these forms are placed outside the morphological categories. Prof. Smirnitsky finds them to be an expression of the Conditional mood. Prof. Ivanova put forward the idea of two temporal centres: the centre of the Present and that of the Past. The Future-in-the-Past is a dependent future belonging to the past. According to prof. Khaimovich should/would are the manifestations of the category of posteriority which is based on the oppositions shall : should, will : would. M.Y. Blokh distinguishes the category of prospective posteriority. He distinguishes two Futures: the Future-of-the-Present and the Future-of-the-Past . According to prof. Plotkin, the Future-in-the-Past is the 4 -th member of the tense paradigm in modern English.
The Indicative Mood
Semantically it is the most objective mood, morphologically it is most developed.
The Imperative Mood
This mood expresses order, command, a stimulus. It is the least developed mood resembling in form Sujunctive I and the infinitive. Hence, some scholars do not recognize its existence.Though it is undeveloped as compared with Russian, we encounter very peculiar forms in syntagmatics { Have done it by the time he comes ( the perfect form of the imperative). Be always searching for new sensations (the continuous form of the imperative)}. It can become polysemantic and develop the meanings of condition or concession. Make me do these things and you would destroy me (J.London) can be transformed into If you make me do these things, you will destroy me.
Debated Problems within The Verbals
1. The existing terms Present Participle and Past Participle are not satisfactory as the finites do not denote time absolutely. On the analogy with the German Partizip I and Partizip II the terms Participle I and Participle II were proposed. The term “half-gerund” is unscientific (I insist upon John doing it in time. I insist upon them doing it in time).
2. Sometimes a gerund and a participle I are hard to distinguish {(I saw mother reading a book(a participle). I remember mother reading a book (a gerund)}. It is reasonable to consider them as an ing-form, the difference between the gerund and the participle being neutralized. The difference between a gerund and a verbal noun can also be neutralized (People told me about your smoking).
The Functions of Non-Finites
The finites perform the function of a simple verbal predicate. The non-finites can perform different functions in the sentence (predicative, subject, object, attribute, adverbial modifier). They can occur isolatedly, in phrases {There are things to marvel at (an infinitive phrase functions as an attribute), in predicative constructions which function as complex subjects, predicatives, objects, attributes, adverbial modifiers ( I made him do it. He was seen to be crossing the street.). Some functions of non-finites can be syncretical and ambiguous {I got places to go and things to do (an attribute and an adverbial modifier of purpose).
So, all the forms of the verb are divided oppositionally into Finites and Non-finites, which differ structurally, semantically and functionally.
Materials for Lecture 4
SYNTAX
The domain of morphology is the paradigmatics of words; the domain of syntax is the syntagmatics of words, phrases and sentences, their arrangement, combinability and functioning.
Syntax studies how words are combined into phrases and simple sentences, how simple sentences are combined into compound and complex sentences and how supraphrasal units and texts are organized and generated.
THE THEORY OF THE PHRASE
To know how a sentence is constructed we are to see how its constituents are built and classified. Theoretical syntax describes free word-combinations of the type ( a beautiful girl, ladies and gentlemen, run quickly, on account of etc.). Here the elements are separable, whereas in a phraseological unit, especially in an idiom (to smell a rat ) the globality of nomination reigns supreme over the formal separability of units.
There exist various terms to name a group of words (a word group, a word combination, a cluster of words, a syntagmatic grouping, a phrase, etc.). Russian linguists prefer to use the term “word combination”, Western linguists resort to the term “phrase”. The constituents of a phrase are the head element, the modified one, the governing element; an adjunct, a modifier, the governed element ( in the phrase “a beautiful girl” a girl is the head, while “beautiful” is an adjunct).
General Properties of a Simple (Two-Member Expanded) Sentence
Within a simple sentence we distinguish primary and secondary (independent/ dependent) elements, the structural nucleus and its adjuncts.
The Secondary Parts of a Simple Sentence
The secondary parts of a simple sentence can be indispensable or facultative for the structural and semantic completeness of the sentence. Secondary parts are divided into objects, attributes and adverbial modifiers.
An Adverbial Modifier
It a secondary or a tertiary of the sentence, it is verb- and adverb- oriented. It is not determined by the semantic meaning of the verb. Types of adverbial modifiers are determined by semantic varieties or semantic types of adverbs.We distinguish adverbial modifiers of manner, measure, cause, attendant circumstances, time, exception, direction, place, comparison (real/unreal), concession (real/unreal/problematic). It can be facultative and indispensable( He broke the thing gently. They took the boy to the theatre.) Complex adverbial modifiers are expressed by predicative constructions{ He entered the room, the dogfollowing him (a nominative absolute participial construction). He entered the room, with his dog following him (a prepositional participial construction)
An Attribute
An attribute is a noun- oriented secondary or tertiary part of a sentence. It doesn’t enter the structural scheme of the sentence. Very often it facultative and can be easily omitted (A beautiful girl entered a spacious room). It can be used in pre-position and post-position. Its position is determined by its semantics. Attributes giving more concrete character to a noun are placed nearer to it than those giving general assessment (An attractive small girl). It can be complex, when it is expressed by a predicative construction (This is a book for you to read). An attribute very often merely decorates a sentence, but there are instances when without it a noun is communicatively empty (She has blue eyes), which makes it obligatory.
I. The General Notion of a Complex Sentence.
A complex sentence is a polypredicative unit built up on the principle of subordination. which varies from a close to a very loose connection with many gradations in between. The constituents of the complex sentence are traditionally called clauses. Transformationalists advanced the term “included structures” as the syntactically dependent part of the complex sentence is included (embedded) into the independent (non-included) structure.
The complex sentence of minimal composition includes two clauses – a principal clause and a subordinate clause. The two are interconnected, the very existence of either of them is supported by the existence of the other. Sub-clauses can adjoin the main clause or they can be embedded (included) into the main clause (We have engineered toys and gadgets wedon’t understand and technological terrors we may not be able to control (St. King).
The Character of the Subordinating Conjunction
Most of the subordinating conjunctions and conjunctive pronouns and adverbs are polyfunctional as they introduce various kind of sub-clauses. (I remember the house where Iwas born). Normally the conjunctive adverb where introduces a spatial adverbial clause. Here where I was born is an attributive subordinate clause.
Most polyfunctional is the conjunction that which can introduce a great variety of sub-clauses : (an object clause) I know that he will never do that; (a subject clause) That this should be so cut her to the quick; (a predicative clause) What surprises me is that he never expected it; (a complement clause) It is the vastness of Russia that fascinates the traveler;(a clause of consequence) So great was her grief that shestood dumb, etc. We see that the conjunction does not determine the character of the clause.
Levels of Subordination
There are two basic types of subordination: parallel and consecutive. In parallel subordination sub-clauses refer to one and the same principal clause. (However hard he was working, whatever was happening, he never forgot me). Consecutive subordination presents a hierarchy of clausal levels. In this hierarchy one subordinate clause is commonly subordinated to another (I’ve no idea [1] why she said [2]she couldn’t call on us at the time [3]I had suggested).
Syntactic Processes in the Complex Sentence.
To the universally recognized processes within a complex sentence there refer contamination, parcellation andemancipation. In contamination two syntactic and semantic relations are fused, which results in contaminated (mixed) clauses {This man looked as if hewere suffering (J.Galsworthy). The clause underlined can be analyzed as a contamination of a predicative and an adverbial clause of unreal comparison. Parcellation consists in separating a sub-clause from the principal clause to rhematize (and emphasize) it (But princess Dragomiroff says that she married an Englishman. Whose name she cannot remember (A. Christie). Emancipation consists in a sub-clause turning into an independent sentence with a connective turning into an adverbial element (Supposing he comes? That he should have come to that! If only he were here today!).